How Fab became fabulous in 18 months

Fab, the online design store, has so much momentum worldwide, it’s sometimes hard to remember that it’s only been at this for 18 months. CEO Jason Goldberg has helpfully put together a slideshow for employees, partners and customers recapping how far the store has come since it launched in June 2011.

The company’s vision is to ultimately become the IKEA or Amazon of design. Considering IKEA has been around for 60 years and Amazon for 18, Fab clearly has a long way to go. But with 10 million members, the company believes it can be a winner by hammering on its goals, which are to have a unique personality, sell exclusive stuff and “lead on mobile and social.” And it plans on going even bigger globally in 2013.

Goldberg doesn’t go into too much detail on Fab’s upcoming game plan, though he stresses Fab’s success will come down to building out a team of superstars and creating a unique Fab culture. Fab will have to keep up the pace and execution for years to realize its dreams and there’s no guarantee it will get there. But it’s off to a good start so far.

With 104 slides in all, you might not get through them all. But here are some of the highlights:

Fab has sold 4.3 million products, or 5.4 products a minute. This holiday season, it sold 17 products a minute.

A third of Fab’s sales come from mobile with 56 percent on Christmas Day sales coming from mobile devices.

Total sales grew by 600 percent from 2011 to 2012. On a daily basis, two-thirds of sales are from repeat customers. Fab had several days in 2012 with sales of more than $ 1 million.

Q4 sales grew by 400 percent in 2012 with 30 percent of sales outside the U.S. Fab now sells in 26 countries.

50 percent of Fab’s sales are home products while 20 percent are fashion and accessories. Jewelry and art make up more than 10 percent each. Fab now has 15,000 products for sale, up from 2,000 at the end of 2011.

Fab ships 75 percent of U.S. orders within two hours, compared to 16 hours last year. Customer response time is down to 15 minutes, from 48 hours last year.

Employee headcount is now 600, up from 85 at the end of 2011.

15 percent of products sold in 2013 will be exclusive to Fab. Fab has worked with 7,500 designers.